amerikaz

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This tumblr blog contains  content from the 2010s and beyond that pertains to CLS 3220: Race,  Gender & Hybridity in the  Americas

instructor: prof. espinoza

This material is presented for educational purposes only.

Scroll, select & view any of this blog’s content at your leisure.

On January 5th, 2022, Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards formally pardoned Homer Plessy, 130 years after Plessy had challenged state segregation laws.  This opinion editorial from MSNBC.com reviews the history of Homer Plessy and the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which legalized racial segregation in the United States.

Click the text above to jump to the article.

In 2018, prior to the  Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal published an article with an image that depicted Vladimir Putin as Genghis Khan.

This brief article on a new spin-off series in the Star Trek universe brings to mind our course discussion of “monstrous races” and medieval fantasies.

For students who are investigating the history of pozole and other Mexican dishes, please watch this interesting video.

Breaking: Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize | Democracy Now!

Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home. […] At approximately 11:45 pm last night, the General Coordinator of COPINH, Berta Caceres was assassinated in her hometown of La Esperanza, Intibuca. At least two individuals broke down the door of the house where Berta was staying for the evening in the Residencial La Líbano, shot and killed her. COPINH is urgently responding to this tragic situation.

Berta Cáceres is one of the leading indigenous activists in Honduras. She spent her life fighting in defense of indigenous rights, particularly to land and natural resources.Cáceres, a Lenca woman, grew up during the violence that swept through Central America in the 1980s. Her mother, a midwife and social activist, took in and cared for refugees from El Salvador, teaching her young children the value of standing up for disenfranchised people.

Cáceres grew up to become a student activist and in 1993, she cofounded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) to address the growing threats posed to Lenca communities by illegal logging, fight for their territorial rights and improve their livelihoods.

Berta Cáceres and COPINH have been accompanying various land struggles throughout western Honduras. In the last few weeks, violence and repression towards Berta Cáceres, COPINH, and the communities they support, had escalated. In Rio Blanco on February 20, 2016, Berta Cáceres, COPINH, and the community of Rio Blanco faced threats and repression as they carried out a peaceful action to protect the River Gualcarque against the construction of a hydroelectric dam.

Exploring the similarities between Spanish & Arabic.

CNI-EZLN Proposes Indigenous Woman for President of Mexico

On October 13, the 500 delegates of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) reached complete consensus on the proposal presented by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) at the opening of the fifth Congress three days earlier: the CNI will collectively enter the 2018 Mexican presidential race with an indigenous woman candidate at its forefront.

The Fifth Congress is now in permanent assembly while the delegates return to their communities and hold consultations to decide to either approve or reject the proposal.

This decision represents a major shift in strategy of the Zapatista movement which in 2003, after nine years of betrayed negotiations with the Mexican government, cut off all communication with the political system. In the subsequent thirteen years they have not looked back, focusing instead on constructing autonomy in their own communities. The proposed presidential campaign will not, however, be a return to engagement with the political system, but rather a takeover and, if successful, dismantling of that system.

“We confirm that our fight is not for power, we do not seek it; rather we call all of the original peoples and civil society to organize to detain this destruction, to strengthen our resistances and rebellions, that is to say in the defense of the life of each person, family, collective, community, or neighborhood. To construct peace and justice, reconnecting ourselves from below,” stated the CNI and EZLN in a communiqué released at the closure of the assembly.

The Indigenous Council of Government will be made up of representatives from CNI communities from all states and regions of Mexico, with the individual candidate serving to “make their [collective] word material.”

Read more at Intercontinental Cry

The link above will take you to a re-posted article by blogger Eren Cervantes-Altamirano, in which she critiques the 2017 Disney Pixar movie Coco.